TRIZ Forum:  Conference Participation Report (10)
Personal Report of ETRIA World Conference: "TRIZ Future 2004" 
(Held at Florence, Italy, on Nov. 3-5, 2004) 
  Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin University, Japan), 
  Dec. 12, 2004
  [Posted on Dec. 14, 2004]  [Slightly updated on Dec. 21, 2004.]
buttons guides you to the Japanese pages.
Japanese translation of this page is not scheduled.


Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Dec. 12, 2004)

This is a personal report of ETRIA TRIZ Future Conference held a month ago. (See ETRIA Official Web site.)  125 people attended at the conference and presented/discussed a wide range of TRIZ research and applications.   Summarizing and reviewing important papers and activities in such a conference should be of interest and worthy of learning for many people who are interested in TRIZ, I suppose.  Thus, I have written a personal report of the conference and am posting it here in my Web site, as I did so far for all the TRIZ conferences I attended (See ETRIA TFC2003   and TRIZCON2004 ).  Even though I have tried my best to understand and review the papers in a fair way, please regard this as a personal view and please correct me if there is any mistake/misunderstanding in this report. Please note that the copyrights of all the figures cited in this report belong to the original authors of the presentations.  I wish to thank ETRIA, Dr. Gaetano Cascini, and all the authors who gave me permissions for citing their figures here.


page top
Outline
Overview
A. Keynote
B. Case Study
C. Methods
D. Knowledge and IP
E. Innovatin in industries F. TRIZ Theory G. TRIZ Education H. New Opportunities Concluding Remarks List of Papers


ETRIA Web site Apeiron  Web site
Personal Report ETRIA2001 Personal Report ETRIACon2002 Personal Report ETRIA TFC 2003
TRIZCON2004 Nakagawa's Paper
Japanese page



 
Conference Name: ETRIA World Conference: TRIZ Future 2004
Main Theme:  Integration of TRIZ with other methodologies/tools and the dissemination of systematic innovation practices even through Small and Medium Enterprises.
Date:             November 3-5, 2004
Place:               Convitto della Calza, Florence, Italy
Held by:           European TRIZ Association (ETRIA)
Organized by:  European TRIZ Association,  (Web site: http://www.ETRIA.net/ )
                           Italian TRIZ Association (Apeiron)  Website:
http://www.apeiron-triz.org/en/index.html
, and 
                     Dipartimento di Meccanica e Technologie Industriali, Universita degli Studi Firenze
Participants:  125 people from 22 countries

Outline of the Agenda:  1 Tutorial Lecture, 2 Keynote Speeches and 36 Presentations in single track from 8:30 through 17:30 for the three days.


 Overview:

     This is the Fourth World Conference on TRIZ organized by ETRIA (European TRIZ Association).  The first one was held at the University of Bath, UK (See my personal report of ETRIA TFC2001 ), the second at ENSAIS University at Strasbourg, France (personal report of ETRIA2002 ), and the third at RUTH University, Aachen in Germany (personal report of ETRIA2003 ).  This year it was held at a meeting facility in the city of Florence, Italy.

    University of Florence (Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento dei Meccanica e Technologie Industriali) is the core of the organization, and Dr. Gaetano Cascini devoted himself as the key person for realizing this conference.  

     The total number of participants was announced to be 125 according to the organization committee.  Participants came from the following 22 countries:  Italy (56), USA (9), France (8), Netherlands (6), Korea (6), Austria, Germany (5), UK, Hungary (4), Belgium, Russia (3), Czech Republic, Israel, Mexico, Japan, China (2), Croatia, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, and Switzerland (1).  This number is significantly larger than the previous ones and even the expectation by the organizer.  A factor of success stems from the thoughtful arrangement of the first day program, i.e. tutorial plus presentations of case studies, which were co-organized with Italian TRIZ Association and were simultaneously translated into the Italian language.  It is also reported that 67 people came from academic world in comparison to 58 people from enterprises and consulting companies.  Such a big contribution from academia seems to be unique in Europe, in contrast to in USA and Japan.  Spreading of TRIZ into various countries can be seen from the above figure; it should be noticed that far-away countries like Korea, Japan, China, and Mexico have given multiple presentations. 

     Tutorial lecture was given by Valeri Souchkov for 3 hours in the morning of the first day.  The symposium started after lunch with presentations of case studies.  On the second day, we had a Keynote Speech by Victor Fey for 60 minutes and 16 oral presentations for 20 minutes each.  In the evening we had a special visit to Leonardo da Vinci Museum and had a dinner till midnight.  On the third day, a Keynote Speech by Hans-Juergen Linde and 12 oral presentations were given.  Since the whole program was arranged in a single truck, it was nice to be able to attend at all the presentations, but the time (20 minutes) for each presentation was too short for me to understand the essence and discuss the points.  
 
     The Proceedings was published in a book of 530 pages.  The list of the papers in the Proceedings are shown at the end of this page.  Oral presentations were given basically in the order in the list; but a number of papers were not presented (as shown with the "--" marks in the list) and were replaced with the papers in the section of 'Posters and extended abstracts' and those listed as 'Supplementary papers'.  In this review the papers are referred with the numbers in this list as shown in [ ].

     Topics of the presentations cover a wide range, but the sessions were arranged nicely in accordance to the relevant topics, and especially "in an increasing expertise order" accordin to  the organizer.  Thus in this report, I will review the two Keynote Speeches first, and then review all other papers session by session in the order of their presentation as follows:

(A) Keynote Speech
(B) Case Studies
(C)  Methods Integration and Interactions
(D)  Knowledge and Intellectual Property Management
(E)  Innovation Strategies: from SMEs to World Wide Corporates
(F)  Development and Implementations of TRIZ Theory
(G)  TRIZ Education
(H)  New Opportunities & Fields of Application

       Some Concluding Remarks are described after these reviews.  (The Tutorial is not reviewed here, since I did not attend it.)





 

(A) Keynote Speech

     The first Keynote Speech [L.1] given by Victor Fey (a TRIZ Master, USA) was most controversial in this conference.  Asking himself 'Why does TRIZ fly but not soar?', he discusses about three arguments.  They are: (1) 'Corporation can do without TRIZ'.
(2) 'TRIZ is complex'. and  (3) 'TRIZ is non-democratic'. 
 
      Concerning the argument (1), he tells a few anecdotes and observations of just lip-services of company executives. 
       On argument (2) 'TRIZ is complex':  He accepts that this gripe comes from virtually all corporate TRIZ students and TRIZ consultants.  Thus he examines the ideas of reducing TRIZ into its "bare bones".  He says "SIT and its derivatives (ASIT and USIT) are oversimplifying TRIZ, and it's not TRIZ any more."  One issue is the Su-field analysis, on which he writes "Simplification of TRIZ by removing Su-field analysis deprives it of an important functionality."
Another issue is ARIZ having few dozen steps.  He writes "Both steps of ARIZ and rules for applying these steps, clarify not only what to do to solve a problem, but also instruct us how to do it.  The more steps and rules there are in ARIZ, the more reliably it prods the problem solver to a good solution."   He also writes: "The skillful and appropriate use of ARIZ, of the Su-field analysis, and of other comprehensive methods of TRIZ significantly enhances effectiveness of the concept generation process -- and, by extension, customer satisfaction." and "TRIZ, as any comprehensive discipline, takes too long to master." 
      On argument (3) 'TRIZ is non-democratic':  From the experiences of very long and extensive experiments on TRIZ education in the former USSR, i.e. teaching students and engineers in intensive training courses for 2 to 3 weeks, he has  observed that no more than 10 % of the students used TRIZ on a regular basis after completing their education. 

      His conclusion was "TRIZ is good.  Distribution of TRIZ is bad.  Don't touch TRIZ!!"  Then he recommends the distribution of TRIZ in the three main channels:  (a) Basic training to develop a general awareness of the methodology, (b) Development of small in-house TRIZ consulting groups, and (c) Growth and formation of professional consulting TRIZ firms.

     Simon Litvin, also a TRIZ Master (GEN3 Partners, USA), responded against the speaker saying "I am going to touch TRIZ.  TRIZ for business problems is necessary."  Litwin also demonstrated in [8.4] a much simplified process (in place of ARIZ) for solving technical problems.

     It should also be noticed, I think, that many TRIZ researchers are not 'removing' Su-field analysis but 'replacing' it with some form of functional (and attribute) analysis.  Simon Litwin told me that he introduced functional analysis into TRIZ but Mr. Altshuller did not like it and used Su-field analysis without the term of 'function' for a long time but Mr. Altshuller eventually accepted the idea of functional analysis.  Nowadays the concept of Function is regarded as one of the philosophical pillars of TRIZ.  We, especially leaders and researchers of TRIZ, should remember, I believe, that TRIZ, as any technical system, has been and will be evolving toward its ideality.  You see a number of presentations in this conference are actually touching (traditional) TRIZ to improve it from various perspectives. 

     In the evening of the day, during the dinner time, I discussed (or argued) personally with Victor Fey concerning USIT.  USIT is not a 'simplification by truncation' of TRIZ but a 'simplification by unification and introduction of a new framework (or structure)'.  New generation of TRIZ (as any technical system) needs introduction of new concepts.  We should discuss which new concepts are appropriate or not.  We should certainly touch TRIZ for further innovation of TRIZ itself.

     By the way, Fey's three proposals for distributing TRIZ seems to coincide with my proposal (in 1999) of "Slow-but-Steady Strategy" of introducing TRIZ into Japanese industries except the issue whether to simplify TRIZ or not.  

   The second Keynote Speech [L.2] was given by HansJuergen Linde (with a nicely coordinated play by Gunther Herr).  As I wrote in my report of ETRIA2002, he and his group have a long history of applying TRIZ since the days of East Germany.  Their model of spiral evolution and its inevitable bottle necks (or contradictions) is illustrated in the figure shown below. 


Their strategy for innovation covers a very wide scope yet focuses on the resolution of contradiction, as you can see in the figure below.  Their methodology, named WOIS (i.e. Contradiction Oriented Innovation Strategy), has much successful experiences for about 15 years in German industries.   


(B) Case Studies

In the afternoon of the first day, two sessions were devoted for nine presentations of practical case studies, with the intention of smooth and easy introduction of real applications of TRIZ even to beginners of TRIZ. 

Siegfried Luger (a consultant, Austria) [1.1] reported the case of developing a helmet for Formula 1 drivers.  The problem is that when a racing driver comes out of a tunnel to a brilliant sunny place his eyes can not adapt well for a few seconds and the fatigue accumulates in his brain.  For overcoming this problem the author derived the concept of a 'lighting helmet', which shows blue lights in the driver's field of vision for a short time before coming out of the dark place.   The concept needs some further development for implementation, the author says.

Vinicio Tresin and Licia Pengo (consultants, Italy) [1.2] presented a case they worked with a tiny farm company.  They wash vegetables, like spinach, and pack them in plastic bags for selling.  The company thought it should be nice if the washed vegetables can be cooked in the microwave oven without taking out of the plastic bag.  The authors assisted them to survey the existing method and to invent a new package.  The new plastic bag has dual sealings, namely strong sealing with a small path way and an outer weak sealing which can release the vapor pressure when heated in the microwave oven.  The bag may have a part for containing a small amount of water for better cooking other kinds of vegetables.  "TRIZ can be used in any tiny company if some assistance is available", this is the main message from the authors.

Manfred Peritsch (IMG Innovation Management Group, Austria) and Hans Lercher (Fachhochschule der Wirtschaft Graz, Austria) [S.1] reported the result of the ISAAC Project for promoting TRIZ based innovation management in SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises)  with the fund from Austrian Government.  With the intention of arranging existing TRIZ tools to match Austrian SMEs, IMG decided to focus on the trends of evolution part of TRIZ and evolutionary potential radar chart developed by Darrell Mann and CREAX.  The following figure (new English version, by courtesy of the author) shows the ISAAC product concept development process, consisting of 5 phases.

       

      [Click here for a clearer figure in the PDF format, 56 KB]

The 5 phases are: Phase (1):  In a discussion between responsible managers and the consultant, the project goals, resources and constraints are defined.  Then in a 1/2 to 1 day workshop with a small team of experts involved in the project, system modeling and function analysis are carried out.  Phase (2): With a larger team of internal and external experts, evolutionary potential radar plots (1 to 4 plots) are drawn.  Phase (3): With the same team in Phase (2), brainstorming sessions are performed using the trends of evolution as a guideline.  This is done in 1-3 workshops and is the most creative part of the whole process, resulting a large number of ideas.  Phase (4): Then the ideas are filtered with the portfolio-type criteria of innovation potential vs. cost for realization (about 25 ideas can be sorted per hour into four classes).  For top ideas and question mark ideas, responsible persons are defined for further work of in-depth analysis.  (5) Then, in the final workshop, the evaluated ideas are presented to the decision makers, who are requested to make decisions how to proceed with every single ideas. 

In this project having 15 industrial partners, 5 real problems were solved as pilot cases.  A case in a shoe manufacturing company was reported in some detail.  In the 5 cases, 125-250 ideas each were generated, and well above 50 % of them were found valuable.  Though product concept development is an unknown field for many managers, the results of the pilot projects were well accepted by the managers, the authors reported. -- The experiences of the ISAAC project should be learned widely.

Daniele Regazzoni, Caterina Rizzi (Univ. of Bergamo, Italy), and Nicoletta Loacatelli (SCINTE, Italy) [1.4] presented their case studies of incorporating TRIZ into the PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) activities in industries.   One of the cases handles technical problems in the textile industry for improving the mechanisms of the weaving looms.  Functional analysis, trimming, and ARIZ have guided the problem solvers to some drastic change in design of some parts of the weaving loom, whose details will be disclosed in a few months in the patents.  Second of the cases handles the quality and risk management in a medical manufacturing company.  The authors introduced the TRIZ-based approach, in particular AFD (Anticipatory Failure Determination), and used it together with FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis).  -- This report nicely shows the collaboration work of university researchers, consultants, and industry people, in Italy.

Kyeong-Won Lee (Korea Polytechnic Univ.) [1.5] has presented a lovely case study of applying TRIZ to invent a new type of 'Mosquito Traps'.  After the hot summer in 1998, one of his undergraduate students proposed the problem to invent some method to protect human from mosquitoes.  So they described the problem in the Su-field model, as in the following figure. 


Then a standard solution in TRIZ suggests to insert some additive which should be a modification of either S1 (mosquito) or S2 (human).  [A figure of the Su-field model will be inserted here later.]

With a help of expert knowledge that mosquitoes are attracted with the CO2 gas from human, they started to think of the method to generate CO2 gas as cheaply as possible.  Their solution is to use a photocatalist TiO2 excited by ultraviolet lamp for converting dirty air (including a small amount of organics) into CO2 +  water vapor.  Then they built up prototpes of Mosquito Traps with the functions of generating CO2, of sucking the attracted mosquitoes with an air flow, of killing them by cutting with rotary blades, etc.  This development was done in a small venture company, KID (Korea Item Development), for which Professor Lee himself is the CTO.  The  model is shown in the following figure. A prototype trap captured 10 thousand mosquitoes in one night near a cattle shed in Korea in summer, they reported.  The model received a bronze medal in IENA2000 (a German international invention competition) and is now pending for patents internationally.


-- I was very much amazed with this case study, just as the preceding paper by the same author on the 'Super water-saving toilet' which appeared in the TRIZ Journal and reposted in Japanese translation in my Web site.  Problems are taken from everyday life and are important world wide; a basic TRIZ method is applied at the key point of the solution (or elegantly explained as such); the solution concept has been refined by building prototypes; and patents have been applied/obtained internationally.  It is remarkable that these case studies were developed 5 to 6 years ago in South Korea, probably reflecting their sound basis of understanding the essence of TRIZ. 

Mateusz Slupinski (Wroclaw Univ. of Tech., Poland) [1.6] has presented a case study of applying laws of system evolution to a problem of thermal insulation in a building.  The problem is to reduce the heat flow from a warm room to the cold outside air, especially through the heat bridge formed at the junction between the floor slab and the external wall.  Various ideas were developed by applying laws (or trends) of system evolution, and the solution of attaching a thermal insulation panel at the edges of the ceiling was found most effective and practical.  Since the solution itself is well known among the professionals, the point of this paper should be demonstrating the ways of applying trends of evolution; but the ways of application do not seem so effective/attractive for me.      

Simona-Mariana Cretu (Univ. of Craiova, Romania) is a researcher in robotics and reported [1.8] her recent study of making a multi-legged locomotive robot.  She has taken a model from a millipede 'Litobius forficatus'.  First she made video images of the animal locomotion under microscope, but she could not understand the motion mechanism.  Then, using the principle "the other way round", she put the millipede on a slippery glass; the millipede moves legs but its body does not move.  With such an observation she understood the animal's motion of body segments and legs, and made a simplified model of the locomotion.  Then she made prototype systems of multi-legged robot.  In implementing the robots she used a number of TRIZ principles mostly guided with the contradiction matrix.  She says she is just a beginner of TRIZ, but she seems to be using TRIZ principles actively in her own study of robotics.

Edgardo Cordova Lopez and Maribel Lastrini Arroyo (Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico) [1.9] reported that Value Analysis (VA or VE) and TRIZ are emerging in Mexican industries.  They have shown a case of improving the paddles for extracting excess run-off of the molten metal oven.   The traditional flat paddle has been redesigned into the ones of parabola shape with a big hole in the middle for passing the molten metal through. The number of  paddles being exhausted per day of operation has reduced from 25 into 5, resulting the annual savings of 15 thousand dollars.
 

(C)  Methods Integration and Interactions

Michael S. Slocum (Breakthrough Management Group, USA) [2.2] discussed on 'Innovation in Performance Excellence' and proposes '8 paradigms to performance excellence'.   His model is hierarchically composed of foundation, base (assessment methodology), and a progression of methodologies (i.e. strategic planing, process management, lean, process improvement (Six sigma), design (DFSS), and R&D).  He writes "In order for an organization to excel from conceptualization to commercialization a number of core competencies must be present.  Not only do these capabilities need to be present but they need to be fully integrated".  Thus he suggests 8 paradigms, where the capabilities in his hierarchical model progressively appears and gets matured. --  But I do not understand why the methodology of the top-ranked R&D capability can appear suddenly at the 8th paradigm.

The paper written by Darrell Mann (Systematic Innovation Ltd., UK) [2.1] was orally presented by Ellen Domb.  Mann discusses about 'Philosophy-level integration of TRIZ into an integrated business and management innovation process'.  This seems to reflect his new book "Hands-On Systematic Innovation for Business and Management".   His discussion on the conflicting needs of 'complexity' and 'simplicity' is most interesting among several conflicts at philosophy level.  The last two paragraphs of his paper is quoted here:

"The 'inevitable' increase in complexity, however, can be managed.  The experience of the evolution of technical systems says that there are things we can do to limit un-necessary rises in complexity.  <A figure and three lines are omitted by Nakagawa.>  Thus, to take a single emotive example, we might ask whether the role of the TRIZ Su-field tool continues to be necessary in a world where function and attribute analysis (FAA) exists.  The Inventive Standards might well remain useful as solution generation triggers, but the power and breadth of FAA is both greater and conceptually more robust than that found in the construction of Su-field models.
   As TRIZ developers we all have a responsibility to keep the increasing-decreasing complexity trend in mind when we contemplate enhancements to the method.  Are we adding unnecessary complexity is a question key to the successful deployment and spread of TRIZ."

Jack Hipple (Innovation-TRIZ, USA) [2.3] proposed "Integration and use of TRIZ with other innovation and creativity tools".  In USA and many industrial countries, when TRIZ methodologies are brought into an organization, there often is an existing infrastructure of problem-solving tools and methodologies.  They include brainstorming, creative problem solving (CPS), Six Hats and Lateral Thinking, and mind mapping.  The author briefly summarizes the uniqueness of TRIZ and its tools in comparison with the existing ones, and proposes to incorporate TRIZ concepts and tools with the existing ones.  The ways of integration of TRIZ with the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process, with DeBono's Six Hats process, and with Lateral Thinking, respectively, are described in some detail in the paper.  --  This strategy and  guidelines seem to be useful in many real industrial situations.  

Sergei Ikovenko (GEN3 partners, USA) and Jim Bradley (International Truch & Engine Corp.) [2.5] reported with the title of "TRIZ as a lean thinking tool".  It was impressive to see that (since Ikovenko possesses a number of positions) he talked various parts actually wearing different hats, including GEN3, MA TRIZ, MIT, and Sergei himself.  Lean thinking was originally developed in Toyota's manufacturing operations in 1970s.  It tries to use less of everything - human effort, capital investments, facilities, inventories, and time - in manufacturing, product development, parts supply and customer relations.  The paper describes how the TRIZ methods (especially TRIZPlus, see Litwin [8.4]) can be incorporated in the Lean Thinking process.  Conclusion of the paper is quoted here:

"TRIZPlus approach has been used in a multimillion dollar lean project at Kawasaki Steel Group (Japan), where at different stages of Lean a number of above-mentioned TRIZPlus tools generated dramatic results including simplification of the process, considerable cost reduction, reliability and safety improvement."

Young Ju Kang, Alexander Skuratovich, and Pyeong Kwan Chun (LG Cable, Korea) [2.6]  reported the combined use of Axiomatic Design and TRIZ.  LG Cable have tried to introduce TRIZ since 2001.  Their particular strategy presented here is to use Axiomatic Design for defining the design problem and to apply TRIZ for solving the problem and for developing new design concept.  A case of improving tensile strength of polymer insulator for holding high voltage power cables at the tower is reported.  The structure of the present insulator is shown in Fig. (a) below.  For tightly holding the FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic) rod, the fitting metal is compressed with a die in its manufacturing process.  For enduring larger tensile strength of the cable, higher compressing force is necessary  but it sometimes causes a crack in the FRP rod as shown in Fig. (b) [Note: Need to change the sides to match with Fig. (a)].  With the aid of Contradiction Matrix and Inventive Principle "Segmentation", they have found the solution as shown in Fig. (c).  The loose body put between the FRP rod and the fitting metal distributes the compressing pressure uniformly.  -- But my question is: why do they depend on the friction force with the straight end of the FRP rod?  Isn't it possible to redesign/deform it into a thicker end?


 

(D)  Knowledge and Intellectual Property Management

Minyi Zhang (IWINT, P.R. China), coauthoring with Serge Pesetsky and Haibo Duan, [S.2]  presented their approach to developing a TRIZ-based software tool named Pro/Innovator.  This software company, having its main office in California and a branch in Beijing, is developing the tool for assisting engineers in the conceptual design stages of product development.  For the problem definition stage, they  provide a tool for cause-consequence analysis enhanced with multi-screen scheme of TRIZ.  Its scheme around an undesirable event is shown in the following figure:

 

In the problem solving stage, user's query for accessing the knowledge bases is supported by a linguistic processor and an ontology processor, the authors say.  The software itself was not demonstrated in the presentation.

    Guillermo Cortes Robles, Stephanie Negny, and Jean-Marc Le Lann (INPT-ENSIACET, Toulouse, France)  proposed a model  where TRIZ and Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) are combined for building and utilizing a Knowledge Management system.  Since ordinary CBR searches for solutions in a single domain, enhancing it with TRIZ is expected to be helpful to search for solutions in different domains.   Their scheme is shown in the following figure.  -- Practical effectiveness of this model still need to be demonstrated. 


     Gaetano Cascini (Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Italy) and Federico Neri (Synthema S.r.l., Italy)  developed a set of tools for extracting knowledge from patents.  A prototype software tool, PAT-Analyzer, analyses the patent documents and automatically draws a functional diagram with hierarchical representations of components in the system.  Further using the hierarchical classification of the components, the core topic of the patent can be identified and the contents of paragraphs in the patent can be evaluated with its depth of detailed description. A third tool is for automatically classifying a large number of patents in their topics.  Over 200 patents related to airbags and car clash tests were analyzed automatically with the tool, giving the figure as shown below.  The fourth tool supports multilingual searches of patents, recognizing five natural languages (i.e. English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish).  This part was funded by WISPER, an EU research project, and is now extended further, the authors write.

 


(E)  Innovation Strategies: from SMEs to World Wide Corporates

      Valeri Souchkov (ICG, The Netherlands) [4.2] discussed on the innovative enterprise infrastructure on the basis of his experiences and reflections of promoting systematic innovation (including TRIZ as a part) and its IT support (with knowledge bases and some logical procedures).  He summarizes in the figure, shown below, that the following four major components must be established evenly as the innovation infrastructure of an enterprise.  The core innovation team is the key  of first importance, which should accumulate expertise and experiences in systematic innovation and activity.  He points out that formal methods and informal ways of thinking should be well balanced.  The second key is the management of the whole life cycle of innovation, from recognition of specific problems and situations (demanding for innovation) to successful implementation of innovative ideas.   Without such management, good ideas are so often lost because of minor problems or seemingly high risks.  The third key is the knowledge sources, while the fourth is the IT support, as shown in the figure.

 

      His remark in the conclusion is worthy of quoting here:

"There is a common opinion that innovation is mostly used at the early phases of a new product development process.  This wide spread opinion is not correct.  Innovation belongs to almost every department which is related to the product/technology lifecycle: from R&D unit to sales and maintenance department."

Elies Dekoninck (Univ. of Bath, UK) and Paul Frobisher (Avon Automotive, UK) [4.3] reported about the current situations of "TRIZ champions" in UK industries on the basis of interviews to about ten such people.  The interviews revealed two different types of them.  Type 1 TRIZ champions are bottom-up self-appointed TRIZ enthusiasts, demonstrating TRIZ through case studies, and mostly having 6-8 years of TRIZ experiences already.  Type 2 TRIZ champions are top-down formally-charged mid-managers, orchestrating introduction and institutionalization of TRIZ in the company.  The latter type is a rather newly emerging phenomenon, and they currently have less than 2 years of experiences.  The following figures show examples of organizational environments and TRIZ champions' spheres of influence.  The current situation in UK is that the Type 1 TRIZ champions are not yet fully authorized in their TRIZ activities in the companies, the authors reported.    

 

Ellen Domb, the Editor of the TRIZ Journal, together with Arthur Mlodozeniec (TechniPharm C.G., USA), a top leader in pharmatheutical technology, [1.3] reported a collection of case studies of applying TRIZ to pharmaceutical industry.  The main goal is to accelerate the successful progress (i.e. 'technology transfer' in the pharmaceutical industry) from drug discovery to product development to clinical trials to full-scale commercialization.  For solving various problems appearing in these interfaces, basic TRIZ concepts have been applied.  They include increasing ideality, elimination of tradeoffs, and elimination of inherent (physical) contradictions.  A collection of successful case studies have demonstrated that the skills of beginner-level TRIZ can make substantial contributions to the problem solving in the pharmaceutical industry, where medical and biological aspects are important in addition to physical and chemical ones.  -- Also see Ellen Domb's paper presented last year at ETRIA TFC2003 , having the same motive of successful application of beginner-level TRIZ.

Bernard Monnier (THALES Research & Technology, France) [4.5] tries to apply TRIZ to business management activities.  Though the application method seems to need demonstration yet, the following figure is interesting to me.  Products may be evaluated with respect to the technical level and to the market level (the evaluation method is not shown), and may be discussed in this portfolio-type diagram; the author named it 'Monnier's Innovation Matrix'. 
 



Paul Frobisher (Avon Automotive, UK), and Elies Dekoninck, Tony Mileham, and Julian Vincent (Univ. of Bath, UK) [4.6] presented a model and a metric for benchmarking the innovation profile in a company.  They used a system-modeling tool called IDEF0, and expressed the top level model of innovation as shown in the following figure.  Thus their definition of innovation is 'the process of adding value by adapting and furthering available knowledge, to satisfy business and customer constraints at minimal cost'.  Their metric of innovation is composed of five-level descriptions with respect to commercial potential, inventiveness, added value/cost  (effect upon contribution or direct profit), cost (investment, development resource, timing), and risk.  Applying these metrics to patents is expected to reveal some profile of innovation activities in historical time scale and in company/division space; but this needs further demonstration. 


Manabu Sawaguchi (SANNO Institute of Management, Japan) [4.7] reported two points; a survey of R&D activities in Japanese industries and the introduction of TRIZ methodology in the new product planning.  (Unfortunately in his talk he spent too much time in the first, less important part.)  The author's group has been consulting with the VE method for many years and has introduced TRIZ  into the planning stage of new products.  The author's new process unifying VE and TRIZ-DE is shown with an example applied to 'panels to be used in the bath room, kitchen, etc.'  The steps are: (1) collecting information, (2) examining the development history, (3) thinking of future development in the 9 windows scheme, (4) mapping the patterns of technological system evolution to the observations, (5) writing future scenarios and developing concepts for the target system, and (6) evaluating.  One scenario for the exemplar case is 'a maintenance-free board' in baths and kitchens.    

Jinha Jeong (Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITEC), Korea) [8.3] reported the current active initiatives of Korean government through KITEC, a national laboratory specially dedicated for supporting R&D in small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  KITEC has set up the TRIZ Task Force in early 2004.  With the support of Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) and of Samsung TRIZ Association (STA), KITEC has quickly set up its operations in the following four categories:  Consulting SME companies with TRIZ (either by KITEC or outside TRIZ experts), TRIZ education for engineers, TRIZ R&D (especially development of TRIZ software tools in Korean language), and holding TRIZ conferences.  --  It is really amazing that in Korea the TRIZ activities seem to rapidly growing in big businesses (especially Samsung and LG), universities, and government and SMEs.

Avraam Seredinski (Higher Institute of Conception, Innovation and Simulation (ESICS), France) and  Vissarion Sibiriakov (DIOL Company, Russia) [8.2] has pointed out that for inculcation of TRIZ different approaches and different presentations of TRIZ are appropriate/necessary in different firms.  They show the Ideal Final Result of TRIZ propagation as:
        "All the employees of all the firms know (all of) TRIZ"   [ ( ) inserted by Nakagawa]
and then set back step by step as:
        "All the firms use (all or some part of) TRIZ"  [( ) inserted by Nakagawa]
        "In each firm somebody knows (or uses) something about TRIZ"  [( ) inserted by Nakagawa]
Then they discuss that various structures and situations need to be considered in both the firms and the TRIZ sides in the "Firm - TRIZ" pair of inculcation.  They suggested application of TRIZ principles (like segmentation, local quality, nesting, etc.) for developing the inculcation strategies.  --  This paper is like an essay, full of important points to be discussed further, but not much described yet.
 



(F)  Development and Implementations of TRIZ Theory

Thomas Eltzer, Denis Cavallucci, Philippe Lutz, and Nikolai Khomenko (INSA, Strasbourg, France) [5.1] reported a theoretical work of representing the relationships of parameters involved in contradictions.  They distinguish two types of parameters:  The first type (called a "physical parameter" of the contradiction) is a parameter defining the designed object.  If the designer can change it directly at different levels as his design choice, it is called an "active parameter".  The second type (called a "technical parameter" of the contradiction) is used as criteria for evaluating the design project. If it cannot be a choice and if it can represent constraints, functions, and evaluation, it is called an "evaluating parameter".   By using these parameters, the pattern of contradiction is typically represented as a network structure of causal dependencies rooted from active parameters down to relevant (intermediate and terminal) evaluating parameters.  The authors have derived a few rules to select the key contradiction from such a sometimes complex network of relevant parameters.

     A case of designing a mold for manufacturing a plastic part is demonstrated in the following figure.  In this case, an intermediary technical parameter 'viscosity of bulk melt' is found the key parameter of contradiction; the design choices of the two active parameters (shown in the left) determines this key parameter value, which then determines the values of evaluating parameters (shown in the right).  Thus, though this problem may be seen as a technical contradiction between the two evaluating parameters, it can be basically understood as a physical contradiction in the 'viscosity' parameter.  The authors regard this method as a tool for structuring knowledge before tackling the problematic situation.


Olga Bogatyreva, Alexander Shillerov, and Nikolay Bogatyreva (Univ. of Bath, UK) [5.2] have tried to reorganize Altshuller's Contradiction Matrix. Their main idea seems to introduce the six 'fields of operation' for classifying the essence of problem or solution. They are:
     Substance:  Adding, removing or changing the properties of material.
     Structure:   Adding, removing or regrouping of structural parts.
     Space:         Changing of spatial position or geometrical form of system or the shape of its parts.
     Time:          Retardation/acceleration of the process, or changing an order of the actions.
     Energy:       Changing energy source or kind of acting field (magnetic, electric, acoustic, etc.)
     Information:  Changing the interaction or its regulation (information exchange) of a system or system elements

Then the authors have classified the parameters of TRIZ contradiction matrix into these six categories, and have built a simple 6 x 6 matrix with the framework of 'operation fields that should be improved' vs 'operation fields that cause problems'.  In each box of the 6 x 6 matrix, there naturally come in a large number of appearances of 40 Inventive Principles from the original matrix; so the authors filter them with statistical significance.  Thus they obtained a 'General TRIZ Contradiction Matrix' having the 6 x 6 framework.  -- I still don't see why this kind of simplification is desirable and
how useful the result is.
        

Simon S. Litvin (GEN3 Partners, USA) [8.4] demonstrated their approach of simplified yet powerful problem solving in TRIZ (or the TRIZplus methodology, in their naming). He says there is a contradiction within TRIZ itself: seeking for high level of inventiveness (which often requires dramatic changes in the design) versus requiring minimal change in TRIZ mini problem approach for easier implementation.  For solving this contradiction, he and his group developed a new paradigm, called Function-Oriented Search (FOS).   In the new scheme, the problem solver should find an existing technology (product or process) which best performs the desired  (abstract) function and transfer the existing technology to the initial problem as a solution.  [This approach was reported in more detail in TRIZCON2004 (see my review in this Web site) .  Their slogan is: "No invention is the best invention".]  The author writes that the key components for effective implementation of this methodology are (a) function-based technology database and (b) global network of  area-based expertise (GEN3 has organized a network of over 7000 subject matter experts).  --  Even with smaller-scale expertise group, this approach should be tried with the help of extensive knowledge base software (a). 

Madara Ogot (Pennsylvania State Univ., USA) [5.4] proposed to adapt modeling methods already familiar to engineering designers for use in TRIZ.  Specifically, he has chosen the 'black-box' modeling technique developed by Pahl and Beitz and adapted it into the 'Energy-Material-Signal (EMS)' modeling to represent the problem with TRIZ-based ideas of useful/harmful functions, etc.  He has demonstrated his model in the examples of an airbag system and an hard disk drive system. 

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ., Japan) [5.5] discussed about the overall structure of problem solving in TRIZ and in its simple and unified version, USIT.  A common understanding of problem solving process in TRIZ is the 'four-box scheme', i.e. generalized problem and its generalized solution should better be passed through for converting user's specific problem into its specific solution.   However, even though (or rather, because) TRIZ has developed a large number of models (of generalized problem-solution pairs), the process of abstracting user's specific problem into a generalized problem is not well organized, and has multiple paths of insufficient partial analyses depending on the model selection.  On the contrary, USIT (Unified Structured Inventive Thinking, developed by Ed Sickafus and refined by Nakagawa) has a clear 'overall procedure' expressed in a flowchart.  And it has been newly recognized that USIT has a clearly-defined 'overall structure' expressible in the six-box scheme as follows in the 'dataflow diagram' representation.         


User's specific but vague problem is (1) converted into a well-defined specific problem in the problem definition phase, (2) further analyzed to obtain understanding of the present system and its ideal system, (3) then, with the application of USIT operators for solution generation, transferred into pieces of ideas of a new system, (4) built into conceptual solutions, and (5) finally implemented into user's specific solutions.  'Generalized problem' in this scheme does not come from models in the textbooks but solely constructed from the user's specific problem with standardized analysis procedure.  The USIT Operators, the key tool in the whole procedure, were derived by Nakagawa et al (ETRIA TFC 2002 by reorganizing all the methods and principles in TRIZ.  The importance of constructing conceptual solutions and implementing into real solutions is recognized in this scheme.  Engineering background plays significant roles in the initial and the final phases, while methodological capability contributes largely in the intermediate phases.  This shows the importance of cooperation between engineers and methodology experts in successful cases of real application.  I would like to emphasize that this six-box scheme can be a sound basis for creative problem solving in general.

Simon Dewulf (CREAX, Belgium) reported CREAX's approaches to developing handy and effective software tools for systematic innovation, by combining his three papers coauthored with Gertjan Otto (CREAX Netherlands) and Alexei Bogdanov (Mars LLC) [7.7], with Gijs Bakker (CREAX Netherlands) [8.5], and with Matthieu Mottrie (CREAX, Belgium) [8.6].  Firstly, they have integrated Inventive Principles and Trends of Evolution into a simpler set of 'Inventive Directions', and used the latter in expressing evolution potential radar chart (with the name of 'Innovation Mapping')  and in showing the Contradiction Matrix (or Matrix 2003) (with the name of Conflict Map for Directions).  They say that these new presentations have already been accepted better in customers' trial use.  Innovation Mapping is demonstrated in the figure below:  [This figure  has been  replaced (Dec. 21, 2004).]


Secondly, they have chosen the  common evolution trend 'solid --> liquid --> gas --> field' as the backbone of combining (or unifying) a number of trends (or 'directions' in the preceding paper).  They also noticed the importance of recognizing the opposite (or 'functional symmetry'), such as a powder vs a sponge, a foam vs a spray.  The following figure illustrates their idea of combinations in space and time of solid and gas.  --  Even though this looks naive in its idea, it must be very illustrative in creative thinking, I feel.  [This figure has been replaced. Dec. 21, 2004]




(G)  TRIZ Education

Pavel Jirman (Technical Univ. of Liberec, Czech Republic) and Bohuslav Busov (Technical Univ. of Brno, Czech Republic) [6.1] reported their TRIZ teaching experiences in technical universities.  Methods of creative technical thinking (TRIZ in particular) have been taught for more than 10 years in Czech Republic.  (Busov told me that he found TRIZ in 1983 and studied it in Russian.)  In the optional course of 'Theory of Creative Thinking', undergraduate students learn the methodoloy of TRIZ with illustrative cases in the lectures, try to apply them on solved cases in seminars, and finally apply them, more or less independently, for solving their own small projects, semestral design projects or diploma theses.  Methodical references have been prepared and software tools (of IMC) are also used after acquiring the basics of the method.

Three cases generated by students have been reported in the paper.  One of them is 'Hand feeding of molten glass with a blowpipe from a pot furnace'.  The solution process is described briefly in the following terms: (1) Technical system, (2) Function of the technical system, (3) Problem (see the left figure below), (4) Conventional, unsatisfying solutions (see the middle figure, for instance), (5) Technical contradiction, (6) Ideal solution (which performs the desirable action 'by itself'), (7) Physical contradiction ('the front edge of the pot must be high and must be low'), (8) Conceptual solution, and (9) Technical idea (see the right figure below).  In the technical solution shown in the figure, the front part of the pot edge is made heavier and the front part of the pot bottom is made with a slope; thus in case of a reduced amount of glass the pot inclines by itself. 
        


In conclusion, the authors write the following points of remarks:
   (1) In lectures, cases of small problems should follow every short explanation of theory.
   (2) Attention should be concentrated to a few essential elements of the creative method that change the traditional thinking in the greatest way.  They are mostly in the analytical steps.
   (3) Repetition is necessary in lectures and in exercises, in order to understand that the process towards a creative solution is relatively the same methodically in spite of the differences in technology.
   (4) Cases related to everyday life are effective.  Lecturers should prepare for using new cases.
   (5) For acquiring the methodology, it is most effective for students to try to solve an open technical problem in a topic on which they have sufficient amount of required knowledge.
   (6) The authors do no suffer from the illusion that all students are prepared for the passion to inventive activities.    Authors' experiences show that approximately 10 - 20 % of the students are willing and able to overcome traditional thinking and acquire creative thinking.

Juergen Jantschgi (Univ. of Leoben, Austria) [6.2] reported about the SUPPORT project for developing a training course on methodical product- and process-development by combining TRIZ tools and sustainable development.  This project was granted by the 'Leonardo da Vinci program' of the European Union and conducted by 6 development partners and 10 other implementation partners, coming from 6 countries.  It aims to develop a methodology for creative R&D of products and processes in an ecological and sustainable way.  With the emphasis on cleaner production for products and processes, TRIZ tools have been introduced for the problem analysis and for idea generation.  Starting in the end of 2002, the project has developed the course (by mostly combining the existing tools) and it is now in its technology transfer phase; the project will start its wider transfer trials in October 2004 with partners from 12 European countries in total. 
       
Norma F. Roffe (ITESM, Monterrey, Mexico) [8.7] reported their trial of creative problem solving by students in the course of microelectronic devices.  For developing digital circuits, nowadays a high-level hardware description language VHDL is used widely and is taught in undergraduate classes.  Thus, designing digital circuits for the applications given by professors has become somewhat a routine work.  On the other hand, various kinds of transducers, sensors, and actuators are easily available in the markets, and hence the constraints in making digital electronic applications almost disappear, the author says.  Thus the author has given to the students the tasks to invent digital applications from scratch.  The methodology is to build a relational schema (in the sense of relational database theory) of a subset of the observed world (composed of objects, events, facts, etc.) and to find two objects or attributes that were not directly related; then, a new digital device may be introduced to relate the two.   This task has motivated the student much more highly than standard tasks, the author reported.
        
Haibo Duan (IWINT, P.R. China), coauthored with Serge Pesetsky and Yue Lin, [8.1] reported their commercial development of a software tool, called CBT/NOVA, for training in TRIZ.  The tool has two courses, basic TRIZ and advanced TRIZ; the contents seem to be a full course of standard TRIZ textbook, where Su-field analysis, Inventive standards, and ARIZ are taught in the advanced course.  For each topic, the course repeats the presentation of theory, examples, and exercises, and then gives a final test and, for the successful learners, an electronic certificate.  The authors say that their principal trainers have over 15 years of experiences in training systematic innovation, and that all the examples and exercises in the software are their original and not published in TRIZ literature. -- The software was not demonstrated in the presentation; hence we cannot see how learner friendly it is at moment.     



(H)  New Opportunities & Fields of Application

The presentation by Gaetano Cascini, Davide Russo (Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Italy), and  Romano Nanni (Museo Leonardiano, Italy) [7.3] was a special one from Florence, where the genius Leonardo da Vinci once worked for a number of years, from about 1495 until the first decades of 1500.  The presentation reported about the analysis of Leonardo’s textile machines and his inventive process by TRIZ methods. On the evening of the day before, the whole party of the Conference had an excursion to the Leonardo Museum in Vinci village and saw a number of Leonardo's design notes and actual models recently reproduced from the notes (See the figure below, for example).  Since textile industry was the main industry in Florence in his years, Leonardo worked a lot in improving  various aspects of rather complex textile machine systems.  The presentation was a trial to reconstruct Leonardo's inventive process in the field of textile machines from his manuscripts.  A large number of his manuscripts were left without reliable records of dates and even partial orders of his writing.  Thus the starting point of analyzing his inventive process was to find (or speculate) which design note was written earlier/later than which one. 


Eight of Leonardo's designs of textile machines were chosen as the data for the analysis.  They are machines for spinning, weaving, raising, cutting, and goldblating.  The variety of their overall functions makes the preceding analysis method difficult to apply.  (In the authors' preceding paper, they could analyze the chronological order of several cranes with reference to the TRIZ trends of evolution.)   Thus the authors applied the TRIZ trends of evolution criteria to specific parts of the machines having the same subfunctions.  They also used the 9-windows method to consider the super-system and sub-system situations for the sample machines.   The analysis is still in progress, and the current results are cross checked with rather limitted historical data.  The authors concluded that Leonardo used to try 'textile automation', nearly 3 centuries ahead of the First Industrial Revolution in UK, even though the 16th century technology was not offering the means to realize it.  The studies about the history of textile processes are quite difficult because the innovations at that time were hidden as industrial secrets, in the situation that there were no rules of protecting intellectual properties.

Vissarion Sibiriakov (DIOL Company, Russia) and Avraam Seredinski (Higher Institute of Conception, Innovation and Simulation (ESICS), France) [7.4] discussed on system approach to failures of technical systems.  I would like to quote their concluding remarks here:

"Besides, we have developed a method for analyzing and designing systems, including all basic TRIZ components:  system and functional analysis, contradictions of different levels, ideality, laws of evolution, resources, etc.  We have designated it "Solvers Technology".  It helps to solve the problems of reducing an accident rate of any system in a system way."

        
Miscellaneous Notes

This was my first visit to Italy.  So my wife and I spent three days in Rome for sightseeing, Foro Romano, Collosseo, The Vatican, etc.  The ruins of the ancient Roman Empire were really magnificent.   I arrived in Florence on Tuesday evening and had to leave there just after the closing of the Conference; so the visit to the Museum on Wednesday morning was my only sightseeing time in Florence.  The city of Florence is charming and the Museum is splendid with full of Renaissance arts. 

The Conference was held at a meeting center "Convitto della Calza" located at the southern entrance of the old city.  The panel in front of the building tells its history as: 

"The Convitto della Calza building, raised in the 14th century as the Hospital of San Giovanni Battista, owes its name to the congregation of Gesuati friars that occupied it beginning in 1529.  The friars wore a strip of cloth on their left shoulder; its resemblance to a stocking (calza) gave the building its present name.  Since its foundation, the various religious orders that have lived here have embellished the building with works of art of great beauty: the 15th century cloister, the fresco of the Last Supper by Franciabigio (1514) and the Cardinal Mistrangelo chapel.  Following 50 years of inactivity, the Convitto was reopened thanks to the efforts of Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli; the auditorium facilities were completed later, on occasion of the Jubilee 2000 celebrations."

The building has three stories on the ground and two stories under the ground.  It has a court yard and a corridor around it.  The sessions were held at the big conference hall under the ground on the first day, and at a smaller but well-equipped meeting room on the second and third days.  Since the number of participants in the symposium was much larger than the organizers expected, extra chairs were set in the front of ordinary seats.  Discussions in the sessions and in the halls during lunch and coffee time were active and friendly.

 The excursion was arranged in the evening of the second day.  We hired two buses to go to the village of Vinci located about 35 km west of Florence.  The Leonardo da Vinci Museum was open in the evening especially for us.  Leonardo's original design manuscripts and the models reproduced recently from such designs are very interesting.  It was a pleasant time to try to find out  the mechanisms of the model machines.  We also enjoyed dinner at a restaurant on the way back till midnight; our buses returned at the hotel at 1 a.m. (it must be an Italian way).


There are 10 papers which were published in the Proceedings but not presented orally in the Conference, as shown with "--" marks in front of the authors.  They are not reviewed here since I have been too busy.




 

Concluding Remarks

     As described above, the ETRIA World Conference 2003 had brought in people working and being interested in TRIZ around the world.  It was very valuable that people came from industries and academia besides specialized TRIZ consultants/promoters.  Here are some of my personal impression:

      As described above, the ETRIA "TRIZ Future 2004" Conference have brought in people who are working and interested in TRIZ arond the world, especially forming a good mixture of people from universities, industries, and consulting/promoting firms.  Here are some summary of my personal impression:


      Before closing this Personal Report, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the people and organizations who made this conference possible and fuitful indeed.

      ETRIA has decided to make the Proceedings and the full set of Presentation Slides in the PDF format available easily through the Web site of Apeiron (Italian TRIZ Association).  Regulations and payment procedures should be referred at ETRIA and Apeiron sites.  Reports/summaries of the Conference have been posted by Denis Cavallucci (President of ETRIA) and by Gaetano Cascini (Organizor of the Conference) in the Apeiron Web site, and by Ellen Domb and Michael Slocum (Editors of the TRIZ Journal) in the TRIZ Journal. 

      For next year, ETRIA "TRIZ Future 2005" Conference has been decided to be held in Graz, Austria, on November 16-18, 2005.  Details will be announced soon by the organizer, Dr. Juergen Jantschgi (Univ. of Leoben) in the ETRIA Web site.  We are looking forward to meeting many of you at ETRIA TFC2005.  (BTW:  TRIZCON2005 being organized by the Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Studies is going to be held in Brighton, Michigan, USA, on April 17-19, 2005.  See you there, too!)
 




 

Contents of the Proceedings and Supplementary Presentations [--: Not presented orally.]

Tutorial

[T.1]  TRIZ-based systematic innovation: introduction
         Valeri Souchkov
(ICG, The Netherlands)

Invited lectures

[L.1]   Why does TRIZ fly but not soar?   p. 3 (+ Separate paper)
          Victor Fey (The TRIZ Group, USA)

[L.2]  Professional strategic innovation contra innovation management - only -   p. 5
         *Hansjurgen Linde (Univ. of Applied Science, Coburg, Germany), *Gunther Herr (WOIS Institute Coburg, Germany) and Andreas Rehklau (Univ. of Applied Science, Coburg, Germany)

1. Case studies

[1.1]  Lighting helmet for Formula 1  p. 29
         Siegfried Luger (Luger Research and SPIN Network, Austria)

[1.2]  An example of systematic innovation in a very small enterprise: a new packaging for fresh vegetables    p. 39
        *Vinicio Tresin and Licia Pengo (G & V Consulting, Italy)

[1.3]  Using TRIZ to accelerate Technology Transfer in the pharmaceutical industry   p. 45
         *Ellen Domb (PQR Group and the TRIZ Journal, USA) and Arthur Mlodozeniec (TechniPharm C.G., USA)

[1.4]  Innovation and TRIZ methodology along the product development process: a study case in textile and medical fields    p. 51
         *Daniele Regazzoni, Caterina Rizzi (Univ. of Bergamo, Italy), and Nicoletta Locatelli (SCINTE, Italy)

[1.5]  Development of new mosquito traps by using Substance Field and Resource Analysis    p. 61
         Kyeong-Won Lee (Korea Polytechnic Univ., Korea)

[1.6]  Laws of system evolution in the development of the thermal bridge problem    p. 67
         Mateusz Slupinski (Wroclaw Univ. of Technology, Poland)
 
[1.7]  Solving a real world inventory management problem using a technique for integrating ideality with the System Operator    p. 75
         --  Benjamin R. Martin, Timothy G. Clapp, and Jeffery A. Joines (North Carolina State Univ., USA)

[1.8]  Analogies and TRIZ, two creativity techniques used in legged robots    p. 87
         Simona M.Cretu (Univ. of Craiova, Romania)

[1.9]  Value Analysis and TRIZ: parallelism of a new technological culture in Mexico    p. 97
         *Edgardo Cordova Lopez and Maribel Lastrini Arroyo (Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico)
 
2. Methods Integration and Interactions

[2.1]  The next common sense: philosophy-level integration of TRIZ into an integrated business and management innovation process   p. 109
        Darrell Mann (Systematic Innovation Ltd., UK)  [Presented orally by Ellen Domb.]

[2.2]  Innovation in performance excellence: Eight Paradigms to Performance Excellence (8PPE)   p. 119
         Michael S. Slocum (Breakthrough Management Group, USA)

[2.3]  The integration and use of TRIZ with other innovation and creativity tools    p. 131
         Jack Hipple (Innovation-TRIZ, USA)
 
[2.4]  Thoughts about the development of individual abilities of human being in the context of TRIZ   p. 141
         --  Jan Campbell (Vedana - Kuala Lumpur, Maleysia)

[2.5]  TRIZ as a lean thinking tool    p. 157
         *Sergei Ikovenko (GEN3 Partners, USA) and Jim Bradley (International Truch & Engine Corp.)

[2.6]  TRIZ applied to Axiomatic Design, and case study: improving tensile strength of polymer insulator    p. 165
         *Young Ju Kang, Alexander Skuratovich, and Pyeong Kwan Chung (LG Cable, Korea)

3. Knowledge and Intellectual Property management

[3.1]  TRIZ education with computer based training system  
   p. 179
         -- Haibo Duan, Serge Pesetsky, and Yue Lin (IWINT, P.R. China)    ---> See [S.2]

[3.2]  Knowledge management and TRIZ: a model for knowledge capitalization and innovation    p. 185
         *Guillermo Cortes Robles, Stephanie Negny, and Jean-Marc Le Lann (INPT-ENSIACET, Toulouse, France)

[3.3]  Multilanguage patent analysis and classification    p. 199
        *Gaetano Cascini (Universita defli Studi di Firenze, Italy) and Federico Neri (Synthema S.r.l., Italy)

4. Innovation strategies: from SMEs to world wide corporates

[4.1]  TRIZ in small business - competitive advantage    p. 213
         --  Mikael S. Rubin (Fund of Small Business Support of the Republic of Karelia, Russia)

[4.2]  Innovative Enterprise Infrastructure    p. 227
         Valeri Souchkov (ICG, The Netherlands)

[4.3]  The role of TRIZ champions: a review of current practice   p. 237
         *Elies Dekoninck (Univ. of Bath, UK) and Paul Frobisher (Avon Automotive, UK)

[4.4]  Selecting of key problems and solution search area in forecasting    p. 247
         --  Peter Chuksin (TRIZ Korea Inc., Korea)

[4.5]  Application of the TRIZ method to business management activities    p. 253
         Bernard Monnier (THALES Research & Technology, France)

[4.6]  Improving innovation using TRIZ    p. 263
         *Paul Frobisher (Avon Automotive, UK), and Elies Dekoninck, Tony Mileham, and Julian Vincent (Univ. of Bath, UK)

[4.7]  The possibility of effective new product planning activities by utilizing "The patterns of technological system evolution"    p. 275
         Manabu Sawaguchi (SANNO Institute of Management, Japan)

5. Development and implementations of TRIZ Theory

[5.1]  Contribution to early stages analysis: a framework for
contradiction's complexity representation    p. 291
         *Thomas Eltzer, *Denis Cavallucci, Philippe Lutz, and Nikolai Khomenko (INSA, Strasbourg, France)

[5.2]  Patterns in TRIZ Contradiction Matrix: integrated and distributed systems    p. 305
         Olga Bogatyreva, Alexander Shillerov, and Nikolay Bogatyreva (Univ. of Bath, UK)

[5.3]  Logic of ARIZ    p. 315
         --  Vlamidir Petrov (TRIZ Association of Israel, Israel)

[5.4]  EMS Models: adaptation of engineering design black-box modeling for use in TRIZ    p. 333
         Madara Ogot (Pennsylvania State Univ., USA)

[5.5]  USIT operators for solution generation in TRIZ: clearer guide to solution paths    p. 347
         Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ., Japan)   
              [Posted in "TRIZ Home Page in Japan "  in English on  Nov. 16, 2004  and in Japanese   on Oct. 18, 2004.]

[5.6]  Mapping the innovation space one: novel tools for problem definition in product innovation    p. 365
         --  Barry Winkless and John Cooney (Altran Technologies, Ireland)

6. TRIZ education

[6.1]  Case studies of TRIZ application in the diploma thesis in
Technical Universities Czech Republic    p. 375
         Pavel Jirman (Technical Univ. of Liberec, Czech Republic) and *Bohuslav Busov (Technical Univ. of Brno, Czech Republic)
 
[6.2]  Training course support: fostering methodical product- and process- development by combining TRIZ-Tools and Sustainable Development    p. 383
         Jurgen Jantschgi (Univ. of Leoben, Austria)

7. New opportunities & fields of application

[7.1]  Monitoring Innovation: an integrated institutionalist approach (comparative framework)    p. 397
         --  Frederic Morand (Eco-innovations, Ireland)

[7.2]  TRIZ and marketing    p. 411
         --  Ludmila N. Semenova (DIOL Company, Russia)

[7.3]  A contribution to history of technology: analyzing Leonardo’s textile machines and his inventive process by TRIZ methods   p. 419
         *Gaetano Cascini, *Davide Russo (Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Italy), and  Romano Nanni (Museo Leonardiano, Italy)

[7.4]  System approach to failures of technical systems    p. 437
         Vissarion Sibiriakov (DIOL Company, Russia) and *Avraam Seredinski (Higher Institute of Conception, Innovation and Simulation (ESICS), France)

[7.5]  Medical education optimization by new pioneering training    p. 445
         --  Leonid B. Naumov (Ben-Gurion Univ., Israel)

[7.6]  Benchmarking TRIZ in the field of product service systems "PSS"    p. 461
         --  Ahmad Abdalla, Berthold Bitzer (South-Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, Germany), and  Danny Morton (Bolton Institute, UK)

[7.7]  Innovation Mapping: Integration of principles and trends into innovation directions, evolutionary potential and a conflict map    p. 481
         *Simon Dewulf (CREAX, Belgium), Gertjan Otto (CREAX Netherlands), Alexei Bogdanov (Mars LLC)

8. Posters and extended abstracts

[8.1]  TRIZ education with computer based training system    p. 491
         *Haibo Duan, Serge Pesetsky, and Yue Lin (IWINT, P.R. China)

[8.2]  Different approaches to TRIZ inculcation in different firms    p. 497
         *Avraam Seredinski (Hiher Institute of Conception, Innovation and Simulation (ESICS), France) and  Vissarion Sibiriakov (DIOL Company, Russia)

[8.3]  TRIZ propagation strategies and system in Korea    p. 501
         Jinha Jeong (Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITEC), Korea)

[8.4]  New TRIZ-Based tool -- function-oriented search (FOS)   p. 505
         Simon S. Litvin (GEN3 Partners, USA)

[8.5]  Tetrahedron of evolution four elements, one principle functional symmetry    p. 509
         *Simon Dewulf (CREAX, Belgium) and Gijs Bakker (CREAX Netherlands)

[8.6]  CREAX Innovator: customization of TRIZ-sourced innovation tools    p. 517
         Matthieu Mottrie and *Simon Dewulf (CREAX, Belgium)

[8.7]  A methodology to devise digital electronic applications    p. 523
         Norma F. Roffe (ITESM, Monterrey, Mexico)

S.  Supplementary Papers (presented orally with separate handouts)

[S.1] 
Implementing TRIZ based product concept development in Austrian SMEs
         *Manfred Peritsch (IMG Innovaton-Management Group, Austria) and Hans Lercher (Fachhochschule der Wirtschaft Graz, Austria)

[S.2]  Innovations through enhanced RCA, ontological search and TRIZ based reasoning   
         Serge Pesetsky, Haibo Duan,  and *Minyi Zhang  (IWINT, P.R. China)




page top
Outline
Overview
A. Keynote
B. Case Study
C. Methods
D. Knowledge and IP
E. Innovatin in industries F. TRIZ Theory G. TRIZ Education H. New Opportunities Concluding Remarks List of Papers


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Last updated on Dec. 21, 2004.    Access point:  Editor: nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp